Kia Motors has hired almost 700 workers for its west Georgia factory, which is scheduled to go into production in December

Kias human resources manager, Randy Jackson, told the Troup County Coalition on Monday that the South Korea-based automaker had just added 90 more employees. The assembly plant expects to have 1,000 to 1,200 workers when it starts production and 2,500 making 300,000 cars per year by the end of 2010.

The new generation Sorento will be the first model in West Point, and a small number of test vehicles have been built since April.

Jackson says suppliers will add another 7,500 jobs, and the ripple effect will bring an additional 30,000 jobs in construction, hotels, restaurants and other businesses to the region

Stand by for politically incorrect explanation of Japanese Transplant plant location theory.

(1)Look for pocket of white rural poverty, where the local natives might be presumed to know the difference between their socks and a socket wrench, and are not too far removed from farm life and especially farm machinery.

(2)Form a cadre of the brightest, best, and youngest of these people as determined by IQ and physical dexterity pre-employment tests.

(3) Make them "Associates," that is official, full-time employees at a high rate of union-competitive hourly pay and excellent benefits. Train the hell out of them.

(4) Fill in with large squad of "Temporary Workers" whose yearly hours are limited, make much less than the Associates, and have no benefits. Arrange with the states to move them on and off unemployment as they reach maximum hours or are/are not needed. These are usually older people, as highly qualified as the full-time, highly paid Associates, but have 0, no, chance of ever going full time.

(5) Racial issues: The Japs do not want to employ African-Americans at all, or at least as few as possible, and are only slightly more enthusiastic about Latinos, except as hired by sub-contractors, hence their search for majority White Poverty pockets.

(6) The Prototype: Big Jap, 1 million unit per year, car plant in Ohio. Located just beyond automotive commuting reach of Columbus. 13,000 employees, 8,000 Associates, the rest Temps. Problem: The original farm boys who ran the place so beautifully for the first 35 years are retiring. The street corner post-industrial tattooed teenage meth freaks who inhabit vast swaths of what used to be rural America are all too often largely useless, cannot read the complicated instructions, cannot physically stand the pace of the world's fastest automotive production line, cannot show up on time, or even show up a lot of the time, (despite a $100/month on-time bonus) and in general are one big headache. In the meantime, the company have to lean harder on the experienced Temps, who are still not rewarded on the same lavish scale as Associates.

A little case history: Took in 200 young prospective Associates for basic skills training, physical "work hardening," counseling, etc., paid them $20 an hour while they trained. 6 mos later, 25 still working!

(7) Most important. Have a full-time staff of operators, backed up by Yakuza who shuttle back and forth from the motherland with cash and instructions, to keep the UAW out. It works.

(8) Domestic Content: The cars and trucks made here are 95% domesatic content. However, there is a wee scam. It seems that, "Certain components can only be made in Japan, Mr. Tax Man. That is why we must deduct $500 per camshaft shaft, and $150 each for the sprocket, for they are made of the finest Nipponese Unobtainium, and our American suppliers cannot possibly get that from their Chinese sources. Nor can the clumsy Occidental Round-Eyed Smelly Big-Nosed Gaijin machine it to the needed tolerances."

Yeah. Now don't get me wrong, these transplanted factories have improved every locale where they have been built. But let's not look at the phenomenon through rose-colored glasses when a good set of American Ray-Bans (Made in China) might let us see the total picture.

11
posted on 06/11/2009 8:13:23 AM PDT
by Kenny Bunk
(The Election of 2008: Given the choice between stupid and evil, the stupid chose evil.)

GM is burdened by its past sins. They let the UAW dictate too much and now they are trapped by decades old contracts to provide insurance and benefits and pay that are way out of line with what their foreign competitors are paying to US workers.

12
posted on 06/11/2009 8:20:25 AM PDT
by Blood of Tyrants
(Socialism is the belief that most people are better off if everyone was equally poor and miserable.)

“They let the UAW dictate too much and now they are trapped by decades old contracts to provide insurance and benefits and pay” — in all fairness to them, at that point in time (the 50s and 60s), the American car industry was the undisputed king, queen and knave. The Europeans were pretty small and the Japanese were still tin cars. Forget about everyone else. UAW took advantage and never changed with the times, so Detroit is dying

I was in Detroit a few weeks ago in the poorer section of town (but not the projects). On a typical block with small houses built in the 1940’s, there would be about 12 house lots on each side of the street. About 5-6 of the lots would be empty with the houses burned or torn down, and another 4 wold be boarded up and empty.

18
posted on 06/11/2009 8:46:31 AM PDT
by Blood of Tyrants
(Socialism is the belief that most people are better off if everyone was equally poor and miserable.)

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